4000003870

BooK

I.'

Royal

Com111entaries.

fore his ChJir came great multitudes of

P~ople_

who

~athe~ed u~

the

St~nes,

a!ld

cleared

all

the

ways

of Rubbifh> or

ImpedHnents,.

whl~h

might hinder his

Chair–

Men in the way or cau[e them to fiumble; with him alfo came

great

Atten...

dants

of the Nobility. His Guards were divided into

four

Squadrons, confifting

of eight rhoufand Men; the

firll:

Divilion, which was the Van-guard, marched

before the

King,

like Scours, or

Office~s,

clear and fecure the

ways.~

two

others marched on each fide, like the

Wmgs

of an Army,

Guards of hlS Per–

fon;

and

fourth

marched

i:i

the rere:

The

Captain, or Commander in Chief

of chem was called

Ruminnavi,

which fignifies an Eye of Stone, from a Pearl or

Cararack

which

grew

his Eye.

tliis order

Atahnalpa

marched

for

the [pace

of a League, which was the difiance between his Palace and the Qiarters of rhe

Spaniards;

in going of which he was more than four hours, and came not,

fhall fee hereafter, with an intentiOn to fight, but

underfiand the fubfiance of

the Emba{fy, which was brought to him from the Pope, and the Emperour.

Atahualpa

was informed, That the

Spaniards

were not able to walk up any afcent,

or fieep Hill, and chat their Footmen either got up behind the Horfes,

held

fall:

the Pecrorals of the Saddles, and

were drawn,

it were, whenfoever

they attempted to mount any fieep Afcents; and chat they were not able to run

like the

Indians,

or endure a

ny labou

r or fatigue like them; With this opinion,

and with a

fancy

that the

Spaniar:d.s

wer~tUfi

Divine Race ,

Atahualpa

tnarched

without any jealoufie or fuf

picion of

that which afterwards fucceeded.· When

the

King faw the

Sp__anifh

Infantry

fo fmali a nUlnber,

and

that,

as if

they had

been

fearfull, they had taken advantage of a Rock to defend themfelves, he faid

to his People,

Thefe are the Mejfenger.J of God, 'to lf'hom we muft

careful/

give no

Offence, but rather recei'Ue and treat them with all Courtejie and Refl!ell:

Whicli being

faid, a certain Dominican Friar, .called

Yuente

"f/alverde,

taking a Crucifix

his

hand, approached the

Inca

fpeak

him

in the Name

the .Ernperouro

•

CH. A

' XXIJ..

Whe1·ein is repeated the Speech

which the

Friar

Vicente

Valverde,

made to the

Inca Atahualpa.

Ltu

Valera,

who was a

fa1thfull

and curious Colleltour of all Paffages

and

Tranfactions of thofe times, repeats unto us the whole Speech at large,

which Friar

Vicente

made to

Atahualpa;

the Speech confill:ed of two parts, and, as

Valera

faith

that when he was at

Truxillo,

he faw

traaflated

into

Latin,

and

w~it

with the proper Hand-writing of Friar

Vicente;

which afterwards ·

Diego

Oilvares,

who was one of the Conquerours, had gotten; and he being deaa,

came to. the hands of a Kinfman ofmine; fo that having had opportunity often

to read 1t, I got

by heart, and by my memory am able to infert

here

the

f~m~

form as

BIM

Valer"

writes

it,

who hath

[et

it down more at large, and more

d1{hnctly than any other Hifrorian: Wherefore to proceed ; when Friar

Vicente

came near to

peak to the

Inca, Atahualpa

did much admire

fee fuch a Figure

of a Man,

different

Habit from all the others, his Beard and Crown being

{haven,. after. the Fafhion of Friars;

feemed firange ro him alfo, to fee him

acoll:

~1m

with a Crofs of Palms, and a Book

his hand, which Come fay was

a Breviary, others a Bible, others a

Millal.

The

King,

that he might be infor–

med of the manner how he was to treat this Friar asked one of thofe three

Indi–

an:,

whom he had

com~itted

.the

~harge

co' provide the

Spaniard.r

with all

th1.ngs nece!fary, of what quality this Friar was, whether he was greater, or in–

fenour, or equal with the other

Spaniards?

to which the poor fimple

Indian

knew

Mm m

~449

•'